Donald Trump Demanded $5 Million to Appear at the GOP Debate, Fox Says

The fight between Fox News and Donald Trump is getting messier by the minute. Just hours after Trump skipped Thursday's GOP debate and held his own event instead Fox is saying that the presidential hopeful agreed to appear only if Fox News contributed $5 million to his charities.

In a statement released to the media, Fox said "Roger Ailes had three brief conversations with Donald Trump today about possibly appearing at the debate ...Trump offered to appear at the debate upon the condition that FOX News contribute $5 million to his charities. We explained that was not possible and we could not engage in a quid pro quo, nor could any money change hands for any reason."

Trump refused to attend if Fox kept Megyn Kelly - with whom he has publicly sparred — as moderator, which Fox declined to do and then issued a statement mocking him. "Trump has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should even go to those meetings," Fox said in a statement Tuesday, making this already surreal saga even more strange.